Atari - Two New D&D Compilation Sets

Temple of Elemental Evil is hardly a bad module. It's an old module, though. It doesn't have a ton of information about the towns or the townsfolk. It's pretty much a straight up dungeon crawl.

What Troika needed to do was take that skeleton of an adventure and inject life in it with stories and PC RPG-styled interactions and quests and whatnot. After all, people LOVE interesting writing! The problem was they didn't do that. That's why the game is a great dungeon crawl but a horrible RPG.

Yeah, but the actual story of this adventure/module was written by someone else …

It's up to the gamemaster to develop the story on the table … It could be either a combat-heavy thing or a different thing …

In in that time, Dungeon-Crawiling was King ! - There basically didn't exist any other form of so-called "role-playing" than just dungeon crawling !

You can see it even in the Eyes Of The Beholder Trilogy : This is simply dungeon crawling. The departtures to the surace came later, and were relatively few. Stonekeep follows this line and the first Lands Of Lore game also had it.

This kind of story(telling) appears to us as dull nowadays, because we, role-playing and story-telling ave evolved !

Originally Posted by bloodlover
Meh I got the Ultimate Dungeons and Dragons boxset this year. Still missing Planescape: Torment though. However if you look on Amazon it's… 500$ and I got it for 25$ ^_^

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Uh, 500 Dollars is a little bit much, isn't it ?

Who invents these … "moon-prices" ?

That isn't a 'real' price - it was relatively cheap while it was 'in print'. Now that it is not available through real channels, Amazon 'sellers' who look to gouge buyers swoop in to make a fast buck. Though most are less blatant than this …

I love the ToEE module. They could have done a lot more with it, though. To me, they were on the right track with how the game began - but as you progressed through the levels, the content became ever more sparse.

Obviously an unfinished game, using an engine with great potential.

Indeed, a meaty "BG" type campaign with that engine would have been singleplayer bliss. I'd prefer that to the Infinity engine, certainly.

If you played good (especially lawful good) then as soon as you entered the temple the story was over and the combat began. Which is fine with me in a way, but still would have liked a bit more NPC interaction once I was in the temple.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Btw: Does anyone know if that engine had a name?

I always think of it as the 'holy crap that is gorgeous I wish they made more RPGs with that' engine

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
If you played good (especially lawful good) then as soon as you entered the temple the story was over and the combat began. Which is fine with me in a way, but still would have liked a bit more NPC interaction once I was in the temple.

This kind of story(telling) appears to us as dull nowadays, because we, role-playing and story-telling ave evolved !

Have they? I'd say role-playing tends to be sacrificed for the sake of story in most cases. You can have both together, but lazy gamemaking in the "cinematic" approach tends to kill any agency a player might have. More and more players think a good story means having lots of cutscenes and full voiceovers, but to me a good story will always be the one I make up as I play. If the game repeatedly says, no, your character does this and to hell with what you think of him, then it's ruining my narrative.

Of course, in order to be able to make up your own story, the world and characters have to have enough depth to them to allow it. That's the thing, the game should provide the setting, a general overall plot with some interesting sidelines, and some characters to get you started, then let you play it. It shouldn't drag you through it.

Plus, I linked two articles there - they show a little bit what's going on there, too.

Am I the only one here who's interested in theory ?

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

@Topic
Cr@p! I actually have to buy one of these compilations eventually. This is the first time that "Mysteries of Westgate" has been released in a box. Bought it reluctantly online back in the day but as a collector I have to have it on disc.

BTW: This is the first time MoW is called an "expansion" for NWN2, not only a "city adventure". Will Ossian get payed for this re-release?

— blackcanopus:

Steam is out of question. It's not convenient, it's not easy to use, it's not simple and fast. It's terrible.